Save SNL

NBC to FOX News: You're Wrong!

An NBC rep has refuted Fox News' weekend column stating that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was in imminent danger of being cancelled, saying "it is profitable at this point" and reminding everyone that they just recently ordered three more scripts of the Aaron Sorkin series.

Studio 60 is scheduled to air next Monday in its usual 10 p.m. slot, although a boffo performance by Friday Night Lights in the slot last night -- where it was placed for a trial run -- could potentially change things. But a more likely scenario would be a time-period change for Studio 60 -- not a retirement -- a source said.

I can't say I'm shocked by this news.  The Fox News article had a bit of an agenda behind it, don't you think?

Continue reading "Fox Gets It Wrong, NBC Says 'Studio 60' Stays Onboard"...

Save Dana Carvey II

Dana Carvey will be the headline entertainment at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) banquet on Thursday, November 2 at 7:00 pm in the Hilton Center at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The SEMA Show is the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world. It draws the industry's brightest minds and hottest products to one place, the Las Vegas Convention Center.  As part of AAIW, the SEMA Show attracts more than 100,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries for unlimited profit opportunities in the automotive, truck and SUV, marine and RV markets.

Dear lord!  The SEMA show for pete's sake?!?!

Listen to me now, dear readers.  If any of you are in the Las Vegas area, get to that show and save Dana Carvey.  Get his attention, get in his ear, do something.  This just isn't right.

I'm sure it's a great gig for a stand-up comic.  But he's more than that.

Related Posts:
Save Dana Carvey

Retro SNL 4-10-99: John Goodman / Tom Petty

Despite my love of Will Ferrell, I didn't see much SNL during this time period.  After Norm MacDonald was fired I really soured on the show, and so I simply found better things to do with my time on Saturday nights.  In retrospect, I missed out on some really fantastic years of SNL.  Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights) was the head writer at this time, and his sense of humor really matches up with mine.

Cold Open: Clinton doesn't want to tell the truth.  He's a dirty liar. 

Monologue: Writers Paula Pell and Tina Fey in the audience accuse John Goodman of hosting a repeat.  He tries to prove that it's not. 

Adult Literacy: Goodman's in a volunteer night class but insists on being the class clown, showing how ridiculous the concept is when you're not 8 years old.  There's a rare sighting of a Darrell Hammond non-impression character in this one.  I like the concept and Tim Meadows always makes for a good straight man in sketches like these. 

Shaun Mondavi Vineyards: If and when there's a Best of Will Ferrell Volume 3, this HAS to go on it.  I laughed for five straight minutes after his first reaction to drinking his own brand of wine. 

CNN Commercial: CNN keeps partnering with magazines.  Short and sweet. 

Wrap It Up: Chris Kattan is a really bad gift wrapper in a store owned by his over-protective father. 

Hello Dolly: A Home Shopping Network show about ridiculous dolls.  Then the hosts start revealing disturbing personal information about themselves.  Hmmm. 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform "Swingin'": These guys just keep doing what they do best.

Weekend Update with Colin Quinn: Quinn can be funny at times.  He was rarely funny doing Weekend Update.  Tracy Morgan stumbles his way through a lame bit.  Cheri Oteri is acceptable as her Collette Reardon / crazy drug lady, and saves the segment from getting the angry rating from me. 

Santa in the Spring: Santa's domestic quarrels with Mrs. Claus during the non-Christmas season.  The crowd seems uncomfortable but I thought it was humorous.  Very dark... a rarity for SNL. 

Happy Smile Patrol: This also belongs on a Best Of compilation, but since it's a group effort it's hard to single someone out.  It's a kids television show that's interrupted by breaking news that the stars of said show are doing all sorts of horrible, vile things.  Then they cut back to the show.  Then they break in again, etc.  I know the concept seems silly but it's so absurd that it works. 

VH1 visits Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick: He works in a bowling alley now.  Quick and painless. 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform "Room at the Top": Solid musical guests, as always.

The Whorehouse's New Computer: I really like the concept of this one.  A cathouse gets a new computer system to accept credit cards and to bill according to which services you've just enjoyed.  However the employees are still learning the software which makes for an uncomfortable wait for Goodman's character, who would really just like to leave.  Cheri Oteri created her Nadeen character here, although that's not the point of the sketch. 

After Norm left, Weekend Update became the weakest part of the show.  However (at least in the case of this particular episode), everyone else stepped it up and produced some great sketches.  This is a quality episode of SNL.

Nate Corddry Interview

Us Weekly recently interviewed Nate Corddry about his previous gig on The Daily Show and his current job on the teetering on the brink of cancellation Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  Highlight:

Us: Studio 60 has a great cast. How is it working with Matthew Perry?
NC: I’ve actually never met him. I’m not allowed. When I do scenes with Matthew they bring in an animatronic Matthew Perry for me to do them with. He’s very life-like.

Continue reading "Joke's on You"...

FOX: Studio 60 Cancellation Iminent

I'm not sure if I buy this as a legitimate news story considering the source, but Fox News is reporting that despite the recent order of more scripts for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the show will be cancelled any day now.

After mentioning the 7.7 million viewers for last week's show, the article then goes on to become some sort of "told you so!" piece where the author says that he was right in predicting that no one would care "whether a bunch of over caffeinated, well off yuppies, some with expensive drug habits, put on a weekly comedy sketch show from Los Angeles."

So if Fox News averages less than 7.7 million viewers in prime time (which they do) does that mean no one cares about the news?  I guess so, according to the Fox News article.

Continue reading "Studio 60 Cancellation Iminent"...

SNL 10-28-06: Hugh Laurie / Beck

I am intrigued to see if SNL can pull off two good shows in a row.  Last week's was a surprisingly good effort, and let's see now if they can do it again.

Cold Open: Lorne Michaels open with an address about how the NBC budget cuts have forced him to sell the first five minutes of the show to a foreign government.  Cue Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) to do a bit and promote his new movie.  Interesting way to start the show.  Pop culture good, politics bad.  Good lesson learned SNL. 

Monologue: Ok, that was weird... the audience's initial applause sounded as if it was being piped into the studio.  Long and a bit rambling, but again, seemed outside the box for SNL and so I enjoyed it.   

Most Haunted: I guess this is a parody of a show I've never seen.  And here I was, all ready to give them props for another sketch that at least visually was different from the usual fare, and what do we get?  A fart joke.  A five minute fart joke sketch.  Jesus. 

Saturday TV Funhouse: Pretty weak, except I did chuckle a bit at the total ridiculous of the last political ad. 

World Series National Anthem: So is this a parody of something that actually happened or just a stab at the ridiculousness of most people who sing the national anthem?  Jesus that fart joke sketch really, REALLY pissed me off, and it continues to through this sketch. 

November 11th: Alec Baldwin hosts.  Yay!

The Queen Visits New York: There are ridiculous requests for the Queen's upcoming visit.  The fart joke sketch really pissed me off. 

(At this point I've essentially taken a break from the recap, to try and see if I can start fresh and ignore the fart joke sketch.  It made me lose the will to laugh.)

Hardball: Okay I'm back.  Since this sketch would usually appear in the cold open, I'm going to pretend that the show has started again.  The premise here is that the Republicans are self-destructing because of numerous scandals and also denying it.  Howard Dean wanting to fight people was briefly amusing.  No Zell Miller?  WTF is the point of this sketch then? 

Hugh Laurie Sings: Hmmm, this was unexpected.  He sings a protest song, just without a clear answer to the questions his song is asking. 

Beck performs: 1) Beck is a scientologist so therefore he's an idiot.  B) Why are there puppets performing half of this song?

Weekend Update: Seth's joke about London being the new financial capital of the world was good.  Will Forte returns as Tim Calhoun, which I enjoy.  Armisen and Hader, as a same sex couple from Jersey, were good as well.  Those three things, and Seth's last two semi-decent jokes saved the otherwise lackluster segment. 

Mr. Rivers' Broken Leg: I'm guessing someone on the writing staff was in an ER recently and overheard something similar to this, which then degenerates into a commercial for House / public service announcement. 

The Curse of Frankenstein: Angry townspeople are fooled by Frankenstein's monster into thinking they have the wrong house.  Dracula then does the same thing to them. 

Next Week: The Best of Darrell Hammond.  It'll mark the first time a compilation for a performer will air while that performer is still in the cast.

Beck performs again: This time his band has a meal during the song, as do the puppets, doing some sort of Stomp thing.  Are the puppets idiot scientologists too?

Job Interview: The interviewers make irritating "impressed" noises during the interview.  This felt like a discarded Monty Python link. 

At various times during the show it sounded as if there was construction going on elsewhere in the studio.  Crashing and banging and other distracting sounds.  Add to that the weird applause being piped in during the start of the monologue and some other technical gaffes here and there and this was one sloppy live production.

Laurie is a solid performer for this kind of show, however he was given awful material.

I'm giving this show credit for doing a lot of things differently in terms of structure, ie not opening with Bush, a song by Hugh Laurie, etc.  But overall it just wasn't funny.  And funny is kinda what I tune in for when I watch a comedy show.

And good lord, a five minute fart joke sketch?!  Want to improve this show in reruns?  Air that one at 12:55 instead of your showcase slot right after the monologue.

Chevy Chase IS Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson's infamous drunken tirade will be re-enacted in primetime -- by Chevy Chase.

On the November 3rd episode of Law & Order, Chase plays a TV personality who is pulled over for drunk driving and proceeds to let loose a flurry of racial slurs.

The tirade is clearly inspired by Gibson's anti-Semitic rant during his DUI arrest in August, when he spouted off comments like, "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

Continue reading "Law & Order Takes on Mel"...

Will Ferrell is a Busy Man

Will Ferrell's Stranger than Fiction opens in theaters on November 10th, while his summer blockbuster Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby hits DVD on December 12th.

There have also been a number of recent announcements regarding future projects for Ferrell:

* Variety reports that New Line has greenlit Semi-Pro. Scot Armstrong (Old School) is penning the screenplay about the early-ish days of basketball, with Will as an owner-player-coach named Jackie Moon, dribbling in the long vanished world of the American Basketball Association (ABA). Jackie must lead his team on a desperate charge to make it into the big leagues. Semi-Pro has been put on the fast track, with shooting expected to start early next year.

* Zap2It.com says that Fox has given a pilot committment to Church of Steve, a show produced by Ferrell and Adam McKay.

* Virgin.net has the news that Ferrell has signed up to produce and star in Paramount Vantage's planned comedy Stepfather.  While it is undecided whether Ferrell will play the lead role in the film, which takes a look at the perfect stepfather's impact on the family dynamic, he is sure to appear in at least a cameo role to keep the studio feeling that the sizeable bill it is sure to foot for his presence has been justified.

* And according to The Hollywood Reporter, Ferrell will also star in Fly on the Wall.  The film tells the story of an anti-social man who gets his life on track, discovering how to have a successful relationship and learning to truly believe in himself with the help of his best friend, a talking fly.

Studio 60 Gets Additional Scripts Order, 30 Rock Close

Four more new series -- ABC's Help Me Help You, The Nine and Men in Trees and NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip -- have received orders for additional scripts.

The ABC shows have been picked up for four more scripts, while Studio 60 -- a high-profile underperformer -- has been given an order for three.

In a stark contrast this year, aside from the two shows that already have been canceled -- CBS' Smith and NBC's Kidnapped -- virtually every other freshman show on the Big Four has received an order for additional scripts, including all the new Fox series: Vanished, Standoff, Justice, 'Till Death and Happy Hour, NBC's Friday Night Lights and Studio 60, ABC's The Nine and Help Me, with NBC's 30 Rock also close to an extra scripts pickup.

Continue reading "Networks hedge bets on new shows"...

Retro SNL 4-8-95: Damon Wayans / Dionne Farris

Damon Wayans was fired from Saturday Night Live in 1986, after hijacking a sketch.  Later that season he was brought back to do stand up, and then nine years later he was invited to host.  Say what you will about Lorne Michaels, but at least he doesn't seem to hold a grudge.

An Address from Judge Ito: The OJ Simpson stuff from the mid-90s is akin to the Bush skits of today.  It's easy, and therefore it's lazy.  And it doesn't hold up.  At least it was short. 

Monologue: Wayans makes absolutely no mention of ever even being in the building before, launching directly into his stand-up routine.  I don't like it when hosts do stand-up.  It's the writers saying "We give up, just go out there and do your act.  We got nothing."  On top of that, his act is about the differences between white people and black people.  Ugh. 

Bathroom Monkey: This is one of the best commercial parodies SNL has ever done.  Monkey Hate Clean! 

Camp Ujaama: Black kids have screwed up names.  That's about it for this one.  The absurdness of some of the names produces a smile or two, but as a sketch, it's not that great. 

Men on Film: Now this is odd.  SNL is doing a sketch that originated on In Living Color.  Farley plays Roger Ebert, replacing David Alan Grier's character... until Grier shows up at the end anyway.  Simple, but decent. 

Dionne Farris sings "I Know": I've never heard of this woman in my life.  I do know this song though.

Weekend Update with Norm MacDonald: David Spade does a bit as Jeff Foxworthy that he kinda half-asses his way through but I think it's hilarious nonetheless.  Sandler comes on to convince Mike Tyson, just released from prison, to beat up his enemies.  Norm was on top of his game as well.  I believe this is the historic first mention of "crack whore" on Weekend Update. 

Perspectives: They could have done this every week and I wouldn't have cared.  I love Perspectives.  For some reason in repeats they've replaced this with the dress version.  I think the live version has better timing though. 

Stiles Monroe: Kevin Nealon and Molly Shannon get doused with spit from the spit valve of a jazz trumpet player. 

Cirque du Soleil: Chris Elliott, Mark McKinney and Morwenna Banks make Cirque du Soleil look just about as absolutely ridiculous as possible. 

Deep Thoughts: I don't think this was a part of the original airing, and was instead inserted later to pad out time somewhere. 

Christopher Walken for Skittles: This is a classic sketch from the era, and one that got Jay Mohr into a heap of trouble.  According to his book Gasping for Airtime, the sketch was supposed to run for 50 seconds.  But because of the laughs it was getting, he had to wait to deliver some of his lines and instead it ran for 80 seconds.  Mohr said that Lorne was furious backstage and didn't talk to him for an entire week afterwards.  Watching the sketch again, I'm really not sure what laughs Mohr is referring to.  The audience is not laughing that much.  He's just drawing everything out. 

Anton Jackson: Another of Wayans' In Living Color characters, testifying at the OJ trial.  I know the host has a lot of pull in what gets on the air during that particular week, but this is just lazy. 

Dionne Farris sings "Blackbird": Well, points for singing some Lennon / McCartney.

Tom Jones Underwear: Mohr is Tony Bennett, selling used Tom Jones underwear on the Home Shopping Network. 

A very mixed bag of a show.  Weekend Update was outstanding.  Christopher Walken for Skittles and Perspectives are great.  Everything else was average to horrible.  1994-95 was a very uneven season, but again, it's FAR from the worst.